Stellantis-owned Robins & Day has officially closed the doors of its “landmark” Peugeot car dealership in Bristol.
The Bristol Post reported that no jobs would be lost in the move from the Temple Meads location, which would see operations shifted to the AM100 group’s dealership 12 miles away, on Lysander Road, Cribbs Causeway.
Managers attributed the development as part of Robins & Day’s ‘constantly evolving business strategy’, according to the newspaper.
The move also comes just a month after Peugeot set out its intention to continue a “journey upmarket” with the introduction of a new logo, marketing campaign and corporate identity (CI) for its franchised car retail network.
The Bristol Post said that the dealership had been “one of the landmarks at the entrance to the city centre”.
Late last year Robins & Day chief executive, James Weston, gave an in-depth view into the group’s operations and direction in a dealer profile interview with AM Magazine.
As part of the interview, Weston gave insight into the group’s continued push to multi-brand a number of its 43 locations to make them more cost-effective and provide broader representation for the Peugeot, Citroën, DS and Vauxhall brands in crucial metropolitan areas.
The move, reflective of a shift encouraged by Citroen MD Eurig Druce as part of his brand’s push to greater profitability, was one component of a ‘Faster and Further’ strategy that will shape Robins & Day’s progress this decade.
Commenting on the time spent planning this future direction during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Weston said: “When COVID does gradually subside and things start to ease, we want to look back and think ‘yes that was a period of a lot of personal hardship and we had people touched by the virus but, importantly, we used that time to reset and restart to make our businesses stronger’.”